Author Archives: Dennis Bournique

The “Real” Web on Phones and What it Means for Designers

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The mobile web is always evolving and one current trend is the rise of the full web on phone. By the full web, I mean being able to use any and all the web content available on PCs. It’s happening, thanks to better browsers and transcoders that can render almost any page on a phone screen. I’ve still believe that a made for mobile page will give a better user experience than a programmatic conversion of a page designed for … Continue reading →

eBooks in Your Phone

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Mobile eBooks are getting some attention this week with Amazon’s launch of the Kindle, a $399 eBook reader whose selling point is that wirelessly downloads books. I haven’t tried or seen the Kindle but other than the wireless connection it doesn’t seem much different than other dedicated eBook readers like Ebookwise and the Sony Reader. These reading devices are niche products with a core of loyal users but nothing like mass adoption. I expect the Kindle too will sell in … Continue reading →

Found on the Mobile Web 28

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Found on the Mobile Web is an occasional WAP Review feature listing newly added and updated sites on the yeswap.com mobile portal and WapReview mobile site directory. With these latest additions the directory and portal now list 979 mobile sites. Reference Mobile Drinkboy (drinkboy.com/offline/) – an Avantgo channel that’s accessible from outside Avantgo. Mobile DrinkBoy features a large collection of cocktail recipes sorted by name or type booze used. Sports Soccerway (soccerway.mobi) is a big soccer (football) site covering the … Continue reading →

Mogoso – Search with a Split Personality

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Mogoso (mogoso.com) is a search site that simultaneously searches Yelp for stores and restaurants and also does an Amazon shopping search. The results link to reviews Amazon or Yelp reviews. It’s a strange combination, while Amazon will sell you almost anything and you can review anything on Yelp, those sites specialize in books and restaurants respectively. I suppose I might want to simultaneously search for sushi bars and sushi cookbooks it doesn’t seem very likely. Grumbling aside, I do find … Continue reading →

Bango’s Button – Broken?

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Bango.com is a service that handles payments for off-portal mobile content providers. If you are selling ring tones, games, videos or whatever on the mobile web Bango handles the complex details of collecting funds from users anywhere in the world either by direct billing on the customer’s phone bill, a credit card or PayPal. I’ve heard only good things about Bango’s billing service. I was intrigued when I learned about Bango’s new Bango Button service which is supposed to make … Continue reading →

vTap – Mobile Video Search

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vTap is another of the many sites offering streaming video for mobile phones. vTap launched in September as a downloadable application for Windows Mobile devices which is still available. Then came an Ajax powered iPhone version. I don’t have an iPhone, but if you do try vTap.com. The iPhone version has some neat features like predictive text search where the site completes words as you type and RSS news feeds that spontaneously appear to help you pass the time while … Continue reading →

Android First Impressions

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Google’s released a early access SDK for their Android Mobile Phone OS. I’ve only had a few minutes to play with it but I’m already impressed. Google’s removed a lot of the initial barriers developers face when starting out with a new platform There’s none of the “register as a developer, wait for us to send an unlock code for the free emulator” (yes Nokia, I mean you) or give us a pile of money (Microsoft) for an IDE that … Continue reading →

Carnival of the Mobilists 99

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There’s a new Carnival posted at Mark van ‘t Hooft’s, Ubiguitous Thoughts. The buzz in this week’s edition is on Google’s Android Mobile OS but other areas of the mobile universe are covered too. Reading the weekly Carnival is a very efficient way to keep up with the latest in mobile technology and business. Link: Carnival of the Mobilists #99: Time to Give Thanks?